David Bergland, of Kennewick, Wash., reminds us in his letter to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday why the government has no place regulating private lifestyles, even when a large number of people disagree with some of the choices made by others.

There are a range of particular private activities that various groups of people take part in and take offense to, and some of them I personally find offensive (I need not get into which here).

Still, I firmly defend the people's right to any private activity that does not cause direct and malicious harm to others. I believe that such private activity is supported by the People's Fourth Amendment right to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects."

Any government policy against generally unharmful private activity is a direct violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The War on Drugs is one such policy.

Bergland, by referencing Ludwig von Mises' argument in 1927 against the alcohol prohibition, explains why all prohibition -- specifically marijuana prohibition -- is both unjust and morally wrong. Von Mises wrote, "government can't stop people from enjoying themselves with psychic stimulants, it can only make other bad things happen."

Bergland writes:

1) The price of the illegal commodity is higher than it would be in a legal, competitive, market. High black-market prices encourage low-level crime. Unlike alcohol and tobacco users, illegal drug users commit crimes to raise the funds to buy their high-price drugs.

2) Peaceful drug users, by definition, become criminals, ruining the lives of those prosecuted and thus stigmatized.

3) High black-market drug profits attract the most ruthless and violent criminals to the business. Alcohol prohibition created organized crime. Today's drug prohibition keeps it going.

4) The illegal drug market corrupts the criminal justice system as cops, courts and prison guards find it hard to resist getting in on the high returns.

5) Law enforcement becomes more expensive for the taxpayer and is misdirected away from violent crime.

6) The products in illegal markets are of lower quality and more likely to contain impurities than they would be if legal, thus endangering consumers. No "truth in labeling" here.

7) Unnecessary illness and death result. Users spending money on high-priced drugs ignore their health. Heroin users share needles, spreading AIDS and other diseases.

8) Unnecessary avoidance of health benefits is permitted. Cancer and MS sufferers are deprived of pain-relieving marijuana. Psychological benefits of use are ignored.

9) Competition in the illegal drug market is based on violence, not peaceful competition under the rule of law. Thousands of murders every year occur as a result.

10) The War on Drugs is a war on civil liberties. Your property may be seized without trial on a mere allegation that it was used in a drug deal.